UBports Aiming For An Exciting 2021 With Ubuntu Touch

[phoronix]

Phoronix: UBports Aiming For An Exciting 2021 With Ubuntu Touch

Last week marked the last Q/A session for the UBports' Ubuntu Touch team working to advance the Linux smartphone platform where they laid out some of their upcoming objectives...

http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=Ubuntu-Touch-January-2021

[CochainComplex]

I'm really eager to test it - I have a gigaset gs290 which is the vollaphone. But at the moment I'm running /e/OS which is really nice and I don't want to screw my daily phone. Is there a possibility of dual boot?

[tzui]

I'm really eager to test it - I have a gigaset gs290 which is the vollaphone. But at the moment I'm running /e/OS which is really nice and I don't want to screw my daily phone. Is there a possibility of dual boot?

I thought about it too, but the problem seems to be that /e/ requires Android 10 and Ubuntu Touch requires Android 9 baseband support.

[CochainComplex]

Thanks for pointing it out. I was not aware of Ubuntu Touch requiering Android 9.
Yes, I remember after unboxing the device I have pulled all android updates first to be on Android 10 before the flash procedure.
Indeed, two different Android basebands...that makes it more difficult.

[danmcgrew]

From the lead article--

"...From the Ubuntu Touch Q&A 92 session various interesting bits of information were shared as far as their plans over the coming months for this community that continues to advance the Ubuntu Touch effort primarily for smartphones -- various Android devices and also the likes of the PinePhone..."

Does this mean that--if one wants UBTouch on the PinePhone-- Android must be installed on that phone in order for Ubuntu Touch to work?

Can't think of a cleaner and more efficient way to kill the PinePhone.

[AlanGriffiths]

From the lead article--

"...From the Ubuntu Touch Q&A 92 session various interesting bits of information were shared as far as their plans over the coming months for this community that continues to advance the Ubuntu Touch effort primarily for smartphones -- various Android devices and also the likes of the PinePhone..."

Does this mean that--if one wants UBTouch on the PinePhone-- Android must be installed on that phone in order for Ubuntu Touch to work?

No it means they have plans for devices that shipped with Android and for devices like the PinePhone.

[Nemerian]

Thanks for pointing it out. I was not aware of Ubuntu Touch requiering Android 9.
Yes, I remember after unboxing the device I have pulled all android updates first to be on Android 10 before the flash procedure.
Indeed, two different Android basebands...that makes it more difficult.

Android 10 is being tested atm, and seems to be working well.

[CochainComplex]

Android 10 is being tested atm, and seems to be working well.

So its good news.

[StarterX4]

Alan wrote about using desktop Lomiri. The UBports repository supports a 16.04 environment. As we all know, that is end of life. What is the X86 support in Lomiri for newer versions of Ubuntu? There are some patches for 18.04 but is that all? Progress has already been made through the joint project with Manjaro but of course we want to do something similar with Focal2. For now though there is still a lot of potential in primarily pursuing the Manjaro approach. It moves very quickly there and being ahead of the Ubuntu curve means we can test packages even before they find their way into Ubuntu. Manjaro even has Qt 6 already. Marius plans to write some more about this collaboration but be aware that this is very much bleeding edge stuff.

Dalton commented that 16.04 still has its uses as a test platform for apps, even though it is not suitable as a user platform. Dalton intends to write more on that subject soon. Developing that idea could be useful to developers who are thinking of making UI changes. We are skipping 18:04 so don’t use that but 20.04 packages are coming. Thank you to Rachanan for the work he is doing on that.

There are no Lomiri packages in Manjaro repos nor AUR yet.

[Baguy]

From the lead article--

"...From the Ubuntu Touch Q&A 92 session various interesting bits of information were shared as far as their plans over the coming months for this community that continues to advance the Ubuntu Touch effort primarily for smartphones -- various Android devices and also the likes of the PinePhone..."

Does this mean that--if one wants UBTouch on the PinePhone-- Android must be installed on that phone in order for Ubuntu Touch to work?

Can't think of a cleaner and more efficient way to kill the PinePhone.

No. The Pinephone uses mainline linux for Ubuntu Touch.